EP 476: The PBJ Sandwich Method For Not Becoming House Poor

What makes Jax Crider with PBJ Mortgage a good neighbor?

Mortgages shouldn’t feel like a black box, yet so many people enter the process feeling tense, confused, and unsure who to trust. We sit down with Jax Crider of PBJ Mortgage to talk about a better way to approach home loans—one built on three clear principles: educate, empathize, and empower.

Jax shares how he found his way into the mortgage world and why he’s drawn to the intersection of people and numbers. His approach is centered on making the process simple, transparent, and understandable so buyers can make confident decisions instead of reacting out of pressure. We unpack one of the biggest risks in home buying—becoming house poor—and why being approved for a loan doesn’t always mean it’s the right financial move for your life.

This conversation also gets practical. Jax explains how a strong mortgage professional should help you see the full financial picture, ask better questions, and guide you toward a payment that works long term. We also talk about how PBJ Mortgage educates clients through social media, Jax’s podcast Financial Mastery Simplified, and real partnerships with agents and attorneys to create a smoother experience from start to finish.

Jax also shares a unique part of his story—earning a law degree after the 2008 to 2009 financial crisis—and how that perspective helps when complex situations like mortgages and divorce overlap.

If you’re thinking about buying a home or want to understand the mortgage process with more clarity and less stress, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend who’s preparing to buy, and leave a review with the mortgage question you want answered next.

To learn more about PBJ Mortgage go to:
 https://pbjteam.com/

 PBJ Mortgage

(469) 373-3107

Transcript

Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

Meet Jax And PBJ Mortgage

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a mortgage broker? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing our good neighbor, Jax Kreder, with PBJ Mortgage. Jax, it's great to have you on today. Now we are so excited to learn all about you and your company. So please start off and tell our listeners just a little bit more about PBJ Mortgage.

Making Mortgages Simple And Human

How Jax Fell Into Mortgages

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Absolutely. So I thank you for having me. First of all, I am Jack Owner, Jax Krider, and yes, I run PBJ Mortgage, where we're making mortgage simple, as simple as yes, and making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I know, kind of a silly tag, but after doing mortgages for over 20 years, um, I felt like that people are really afraid of mortgage, the whole process, I guess. I guess it's scary to ask somebody to borrow a whole bunch of money. Um, and so our whole objective was is that we really wanted to um follow by the principles of educate, empathize, and power. And we really wanted our customers to not feel like it had to be a stressful process. If you have the right experts standing behind you, um, then I don't feel like the mortgage process has to be um scary and um complicated. I feel like it really can be like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And so that's the the objective, anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

I love that. Now let's get into your background here for a second. You know, how did you originally get into an industry like this?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

So I did it on accident. Um I needed a job. I was in college, a friend of mine, um, my youth pastor's wife actually, she owned a mortgage company, and she said, Hey, you know, you're really good at math. Like, why don't you come work for my company? I said, Okay. And so I started working in mortgage in college, and I really liked it. I always liked numbers, but um, I was a mechanical engineering major originally, and I hated that it had no intersection with people, really. It was sort of like just numbers, and that was it. Mortgage was sort of like where people and um numbers like sort of intersected, and I just sort of liked that concept. And so after I got out school, I kind of got in, and it's it's kind of a joke. I always joke that if you get in the mortgage industry, it's like the mafia. Once you get in, you can't get out. Um, and it just sort of has always been that way for me. Um, I think I alluded to earlier before our conversation that I actually have a secondary company called Financial Mastery Simplified. It's basically just kind of the extension arm of PBJ in the sense that I genuinely like helping people financially succeed. I think that one of the bigger rocks um in your financial wealth pattern is typically owning a home. Um, and we get to usually be a part of that process because most people wake up and they think to themselves, you know, I really want to, you know, buy a house, but they realize that they don't have a half a million dollars or more sitting in their bank account. So we kind of become the necessary evil of the transaction. And I just like helping people simplify that down and making that easy.

Biggest Mortgage Misconceptions

SPEAKER_02 3:00

I love that. I love that. Now, today, you know, what is that number one misconception you like to address when it comes to PBJ mortgage that you get?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

So people do really think that mortgage companies, I guess, are kind of scary, um, or that they can just kind of outsource their power to like some random person on the internet. And I'm like, it's the largest debt transaction you're ever gonna hold. If you have the right expert, they're not gonna shame you if your credit's not perfect or your income's not perfect or whatever and your financial picture is not perfect. Um, also, it's important to pick somebody who really is on your side who actually cares about you and what's going on with you because we typically are trying to help you look at the full financial picture. I don't want you, my team doesn't want you to be house poor. We don't want you to be in a situation where every time you stroke the check, you're feeling really stressed out or you're feeling like it doesn't suit your life. Um, and so we actually will challenge people if we feel like they're biting off more than they could chew, or maybe they should push a little bit deeper because otherwise they're gonna hate it, like they hate the house that they buy, and then have to move quickly into something else. So we're trying to really make sure that, you know, it's not a scary process, that that somebody like you feel like somebody's in your corner. And unfortunately, I feel like people believe financial people in general are just a bunch of shisters. And I swear we don't all, we're not all that way. Okay, maybe some of us are, but not not all of us.

Ideal Clients And Marketing Channels

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Now let's switch gears for a second, Jack. So we know marketing is the heart of every business. So ideally, who are some of those clients that you're looking to help and how are you reaching them?

Law Degree And Divorce Mortgage Help

SPEAKER_01 4:38

That's an excellent question. So we definitely do have an ideal client profile. I mean, for us, the clients that we're looking for, they value education. So they don't necessarily have to be super well educated, but they value it. They want like basically a process to be sort of drilled down into simple, easy, digestible steps, right? They value expertise and what they're looking for is that to be done for them in the mortgage space, right? And so how do we reach them? Well, I am all over every social media platform you can possibly imagine. As I told you before, I host my own podcast called Financial Mastery Simplified. It's not the objective of necessarily getting them to do a mortgage immediately, but helping them understand financial things aspects. And then, of course, if they need to do a mortgage, hopefully then they come to us. Um, we also sometimes do some different outreach through relationships with real estate agents that we partner with, relationships with attorneys that we partner with, right? So I am a nerd when the 08-09 crisis went down. I actually went and got a law degree. I work full-time and went to night law school for four years. And so I have a really heavy understanding of like how the divorce process works. And so helping connect those dots between attorney, client, and um, if there's a mortgage involved, a house involved, how that's all gonna look. Um, and so those are some of the ways that we reach out. Um, and then of course, just being involved in the community, right? So we try to do things involved with charitable organizations, um, networking groups, things of that sort. Um, because I feel like it can't just be one way, right? You have to be looking to reach people in a broad uh maraud of ways.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Well, Jax, let's go ahead and touch on one final thing before we close out today. You know, where can our listeners go to learn more about PBJ Mortgage?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Absolutely. So our website is PBJ Team T E A M.com. So PBJ like the sandwich and then teamt-a-m.com. Why? Because a lot of people cancel mortgage, and that's okay, even people in my industry. So I get that. You also um I have a YouTube channel called PBJ Mortgage TV. Um, so you could go there if you wanted to, you know, learn more about the mortgage process, things like that. Um, and then I'm all over social media. So if you look up Jack Owner, Jack's Chryder, you can pretty much find me just about anywhere and see that we absolutely do practice what we preach. And so if there's ever questions, resources, things like that that I can offer, um, there's tons of ways that you can be able to communicate with us. Um, I wrote a book called Mortgage 101, The Secret Sauce of Homebaying. I literally give a PDF copy away for free on our website. So tons of different ways that you can not only reach out, but get good resources to be able to help you with wherever you're at in your journey.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Well, Jax, I really appreciate you being on the show today. We wish you and your business is the best moving forward.

Nominate A Local Business

SPEAKER_01 7:31

I appreciate that. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfrisco.com. That's gnpfrisco.com or call four six nine two two one nine three four five.